reaching this stage was challenging as the cockpit tub required considerable sanding down of the floor before the lower fuselage piece would fit without a gap. A ton of scraping all parts at almost all ends was necessary to make things work. the contact areas were puttied with minuscle amounts of dissolved putty from Mr. Hobby, sanded and rescraped where needed. The airintake is formed by three pieces and still needs a bit of attention.
I am not the wheel well detailing kinda guy. So I was happy to realise that the wheel wells of my gate guard war almost empty as most of the hydraulic lines have been removed before displaying the bird.
The bottom tail fin needed some modification to come closer to the one of my plane. At the top you see the shape provided in the kit. The central part of the assembly below was already modified. Here too no fit without considerable scraping and repeated dryfitting.
The tailfin was a pain as the two halfes didn't meet perfectly, leaving a seam at the leading edge. Filling and sanding this was the easy part, but the top of the fin is a seperate part which was then considerably thinner than the body of the fin. To blend that in was a bit of an effort.
At the beginning I cursed at the way the contact areas are designed as they do not run along panel lines but right through the panels where no lines are present at the original. But then, in the course of the build I actually came to appreciate this design as you can fill and sand it with only little need to rescribe. Rear air breaks weren't a good fit.
So I added some detail - of course only after extensive research - which - I admit - was than a bit ameliorated by a wee amount of gizmology, but continuously supervised by a certified holder of an artistic licence.
The landing gear received some additions too. Here a tad closer to the real thing. Some modifications had to be done as the Mig hangs by its legs - of which the parts with the axles were removed. Removed were quite a bit of the retraction mechanisms and wheel well doors too. Something I wasn't too sorry about.
Commentaires
17 28 February, 17:35
Patrick Hagelstein Ooh! This is a cool idea! Very curious how this will turn out. Definitely joining in! 🙂
28 February, 19:44
bughunter Nice project! I remember that bird from our visit (that triggers me to start plastic models) years ago too. I was impressed that you could see the bolts of the pivoting wings from the outside - and that they looked like new, unlike the rest. Titanium?
I hope you have enough pictures, a picture search found some.
1 March, 00:42
Nicolas I'm in. I grew up between Sinsheim and the partnermuseum in Speyer. So we visited one of the museums about every second month.
1 March, 09:55
Michael Kohl Hi mates. Nice to have you on board.
Jep Frank, I think I do have enough pics as I shot a series with this project already in my mind.
It is indeed a very nice museum tour to visit Sinsheim and Speyer together.
Michael Kohl Welcome everybody. Your interest elates me.
3 March, 15:58
Album info
The Technikmuseum Sinsheim. In case you haven´t been there, I strongly recommend going. Located in southern Germany it has a unique - if chaotic - collection of highly interesting objects. The iconic Concorde to be named as just one of them. Planes, cars, trains, boats, bicycles... you name it. And when you enter the parking lot, you are greeted by this bleached former GDR Mig-23 on poles as a gate guard. The faded colors gripped me immediately and yet another project startet to form in my mind.
And then - well, then ClearProp released a brand new, state of the art kit of the Mig-23 and made all the others obsolete - or so I thought.
Anyway. I got hold of a kit for an acceptable prize and couldn´t restrain myself and started building. The molding just looked spectacular with finest details and an extensive PE-fret. So I expected it to fall together just smoothly with a tad of extra thin cement and I´d be looking at a Mig-23 ready for paint in no time.
By now the real course of events probably doesn´t come as a surprise to you anymore as nothing fit properly. Maybe tolerances are so tight that I didn´t work precisely enough and it was all my fault? But more and more build reports stated similar difficulties. Progress was slow and endless sanding required just to mate the lower fuselage part to the nose-cockpit-section felt like an uphill battle. The rather complicated part breakdown - maybe to make the realisation of different versions more feasible - didn´t make matters easier and frustration grew until I threw the whole kit utterly disappointed onto the shelf of doom.
A couple of months later a nice modelling evening with my chaps lay ahead and I was looking for a project to continue when we met. So I grabbed my sanding and scraping gear and the illfitting kit again to give it another try. And - what can I say - with a different mindset, low expectations concerning fit, high motivation to preserve the fine details despite all the sanding and scraping required, this kit startet to take shape and progress slowly but continuously. So, being not far from the painting stage anymore, let my show you some steps on the way. Maybe it will interest or even help one or the other. And then - let´s color this beast!
Patrick Hagelstein
bughunter
Nicolas
Michael Kohl
